When you transform your datacenter on-premises to Microsoft Azure Cloud Service, these Architecture references can help you
to make the right chooses for your business needs. The Azure Architecture Center contains guidance for building end-to-end solutions on Microsoft Azure. Here you will find reference architectures, best practices, design patterns, scenario guides, and reference implementations.

On the left site of this page you can download the complete content of Microsoft Azure Architecture Center into a PDF file 😉
Looks like this :

When your transition and your Architecture is done on Paper you can move save to Microsoft Azure Cloud Services.

Accelerate your digital transformation:
Now is the time to move to Azure and reap the rewards of cloud technology, including the ability to scale up or down quickly, pay only for what you use, and save on compute power. Whether you are deploying new virtual machines, moving a few workloads, or migrating your datacenters as part of your hybrid cloud strategy, the Azure Hybrid Benefit provides big savings as you move to the cloud.

Here you find the Whitepaper of Azure Virtual Datacenter Lift and Shift Guide but also an E-book of Azure Virtual Datacenter from the Azure CAT Guidance Team which can help you to start your transition of your datacenter to the Microsoft Azure Cloud.

When you have workloads in your on-premises Datacenter which may not run in any public Cloud or via Internet, you can run Microsoft Azure in your Datacenter via Microsoft Azure Stack.

Build modern applications across hybrid cloud environments

Azure Stack is an extension of Azure, bringing the agility and fast-paced innovation of cloud computing to on-premises environments. Only Azure Stack lets you deliver Azure services from your organization’s datacenter, while balancing the right amount of flexibility and control—for truly-consistent hybrid cloud deployments.

Overview Azure Virtual Datacenter is an approach to making the most of the Azure cloud platform’s capabilities while respecting your existing security and networking policies. When deploying enterprise workloads to the cloud, IT organizations and business units must balance governance with developer agility. Azure Virtual Datacenter provides models to achieve this balance with an emphasis on governance. Deploying workloads to the cloud introduces the need to develop and maintain trust in the cloud to the same degree you trust your existing datacenters. The first model of Azure Virtual Datacenter guidance is designed to bridge that need through a locked-down approach to virtual infrastructures. This approach isn’t for everyone. It’s specifically designed to guide enterprise IT groups in extending their on-premises infrastructure to the Azure public cloud. We call this approach the trusted datacenter extension model. Over time, several other models will be offered, including those that allow secure Internet access directly from a virtual datacenter.

In the Azure Virtual Datacenter model, you can apply isolation policies, make the cloud more like the physical datacenters you know, and achieve the levels of security and trust you need. Four components any enterprise IT team would recognize make it possible: software-defined networking, encryption, identity management, and the Azure platform’s underlying compliance standards and certifications. These four are key to making a virtual datacenter a trusted extension of your existing infrastructure investment. Central to this model is the idea that your cloud infrastructure has isolation boundaries that can be thought of as your corporate namespace. Think of it as your isolated cloud within Azure. Within this virtual boundary, security controls, network policies, and compliance come together, providing you with an IT infrastructure on Azure capable of securely integrating cloud resources with your existing on-premises datacenter. You can deploy new virtual workspaces in the virtual datacenter much as you would deploy additional capacity to your physical datacenter. These virtual workspaces are self-contained

Environments where workloads can run independently, and workload teams can get workspace specific access. Workspaces enable teams to build solutions and manage workloads with great freedom while adhering to the overall access and security policies defined in the central IT infrastructure. This guide is intended for enterprise IT architects and executives. Using the lens of the physical datacenter, the guide discusses an approach to designing secure, trusted virtual datacenters on the Azure platform. Azure Virtual Datacenter is not a specific product or service but rather a way to think about cloud infrastructures. It offers proven practices and guidance to help smooth your migration to the cloud. At the end of this guide, you can learn about the upcoming Virtual Datacenter Automation guidance. This guidance includes a collection of scripts and Azure Resource Manager templates that will help you build an Azure Virtual Datacenter using the trusted extension model.

The diagram below illustrates how an organization can extend its on-premises datacenter to Microsoft Azure. It’s an interactive diagram. Download the file and open it in your browser. If Internet Explorer asks you if you want to allow blocked content, you’ll need to allow it to enable the interactivity. This message appears because the page contains script that enables the interactivity. Hovering your mouse over most objects in the diagram will provide additional details about the implementation of the object. Clicking on many of the objects will open a relevant design or implementation article about the object.

If you already have some experience with Azure, this will help you understand how to use it as a true extension to your on-premises datacenter. If not, it’s recommended that you gain a basic understanding of Azure before using this diagram. The example data and links within the diagram should save you countless hours of searching for all the information you’ll need to extend your on-premises datacenter to Azure. A video walkthrough of the diagram is also available :

Here’s a 10 min video from Microsoft describing the ‘Microsoft Cloud’ and the Windows Azure data centers – with emphasis on their modular approach, energy efficiency, and sustainability.
We also get a peek at the generation 3 and 4 data centers – this is where our bits run in the Azure cloud!